Well-heeled Nimbys flex their buying power

Local residents' battles against housebuilders usually consist of frantic letter-writing campaigns to the local council complaining about traffic and loss of green space.

But the collapse in prices of housebuilding land has presented Nimbys in well-heeled villages with a rare opportunity: to get their wallets out and buy up threatened greenfield sites.

Villagers in East Horsley, Surrey, are trying to raise £150,000 over the next month to take ownership of Highlands Woods, a 15-acre plot that has spent 70 years under threat of being chopped down to make way for commuters' homes.

The woods were bought in the Thirties by developers Higgs & Hill, who saw the land as suitable for housing.

In the event, the company didn't get round to building before the Second World War intervened.

Afterwards, the land was designated as green belt, but the developers never gave up.

The land passed through several owners, who kept it in a 'land bank' of sites they hoped might one day be developed. The last planning application was turned down in the Nineties.

But with the recession forcing developers to dispose of land to raise cash, villagers seized their chance.

'A couple of residents stepped in to buy the land and have now given East Horsley Parish Council the option to buy it for £150,000,' says council clerk Richard Deighton. 'We have had 250 people contributing, some giving well into four figures.'

If the parish can raise the money in time, the plan is for the parish council to lease the land for 999 years to Surrey Wildlife Trust. The arrangement would prevent either body in future trying to cash in on the development value of the land.

A similar fundraising effort is going on in the nearby village of Brockham, where an Emergency Land Preservation committee has been formed to raise £160,000 to buy a 2.5-acre field and barn which have been placed on the market.

But could villagers be wasting their time and money?

When the new towns were created between the Forties and the Seventies, development corporations were given powers to compulsorily purchase land at agricultural value.

In 2004, the Government changed the law to grant these powers to local authorities that want to enable development for 'the economic, social or environmental wellbeing of their area'.

So, if local residents with thick wallets are thwarting their attempts to fulfil their housebuilding targets, they can force them to sell the land, possibly at a loss.

'We are aware of that,' says Des Hollier of Horsley Countryside Preservation Society, which has acquired 45 acres in the area.

'We're not against housebuilding, but we are trying to preserve the better parts of the countryside.'